An alcohol-related motor vehicle crash kills someone every 33 minutes and nonfatally injures someone every two minutes. In 1999, 15,786 people died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. That's 38% of the year's total traffic deaths.

Approximately 1.4 million drivers were arrested in 1998 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. That's just over 1% of the estimated 120 million or more episodes of impaired driving that occur among U.S. adults each year.

About 3 in 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetimes.

Nearly three-quarters of drivers convicted of driving while impaired are either frequent heavy drinkers (alcohol abusers) or alcoholics (alcohol dependent).

The National Safety Council estimates that alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes cost the nation $26.9 billion in 1998.

A new standard:

On October 23, 2000, the President signed a transportation appropriations bill that included language creating a new national standard for the allowable blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for motor vehicle drivers. The bill requires states to enact legislation lowering the allowable BAC to 0.08%. States that do not enact such legislation stand to lose 2% to 8% of federal highway construction funds beginning in 2004.

Five effective interventions:

Random breath testing/sobriety checkpoints

Reducing legal blood alcohol concentration to 0.08%

Minimum legal drinking age laws

Server training programs

"Zero tolerance" laws for young drivers

Children and Drinking Drivers

A CDC study published in the May 3, 2000, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly two-thirds of children under 15 who died in alcohol-related crashes between 1985 and 1996 were riding with the drinking driver. More than two-thirds of the drinking drivers were old enough to be the parent of the child who was killed. The study also found that fewer than 20% of the children killed were properly restrained at the time of the crash and that restraint use decreased as the driver's blood alcohol concentration increased.